


Meet Me In the Back

by bothromeoandjuliet



Series: Spooky Times Jeronica Week (Wicked Jeronica) [6]
Category: Archie Comics, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Old Friends, college party, meeting high school friends, so that's fun, this kinda ended up fitting in wit one of my other series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 14:43:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21272882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bothromeoandjuliet/pseuds/bothromeoandjuliet
Summary: Veronica had determined on the perfect plan to get herself through college, and that plan doesn't have any room for late night parties or flirtatious frat boys. But when her friends Alexa and Madison convince her to go to a friend's party, she just might end up with something more then a bad headache in the morning.





	Meet Me In the Back

**Author's Note:**

> Oneshot 6/7 of Spooky Times Jeronica Week! I had so much fun writing this one, and I'm excited that it ended up fitting into my 'There Is More Then You and Me' universe! The prompt is TV Show.
> 
> Comments are welcomed and greatly appreciated! <3<3<3

“…ronica? Veronica!”

“Sure—I mean, yes—sorry!” Veronica grinned sheepishly at Alexa and Madison, her friends from French Lit. and Theater History respectively.

“I swear that your head is even more in the clouds then normal today.” Madison laughed, tucked Veronica’s arm securely under her own as they crossed the road to the other side of the dorms.

“I know, I know. I just have this paper that I have to write for philosophy and I can’t seem to focus on anything!”

“Which brings us back to what we were talking about when you blanked out on us.” Alexa interrupted “We’re stressed, overworked, and we are also invited to a party—tonight—with some of the guys on my floor.”

Veronica winced and over her head Madison said, “I told you she wouldn’t go.” to Alex, nodding her head sagely.

“I’m sorry, but you guys know that I don’t do parties. I promised to leave that sort of thing behind me when I graduated, and so far I’ve managed to.”

“Trust us, we remember—No parties, no staying out past one-thirty, no alcohol when it’s term time and _absolutely no boys_.” both girls chorused.

Veronica groaned, pushing her glasses back up her nose.

“I don’t know why you guys hang out with me if you think that I’m so boring.”

“No!”

“We would never think that you’re boring,” Madison insisted “it’s just that we think the you’re adorable and we want the chance to dress you up and so you off! It’s like having a doll that we aren’t allowed to play with.”

They had reached the entry to Veronica’s block of dorms and as Madison released her arm Veronica asked,

“If I were to go—hypothetically, obviously—would you guys insist that I black out lose it? Or would we just go, have a few drinks, dance a little, and then leave?”

Alexa snorted, grabbing Veronica’s hand.

“Veronica, you know us. You know that we would never force you into doing something that you didn’t want to do. If you were to say you wanted to go, we would drop everything and go.”

Veronica bit her lip, considering, while Madison and Alexa tried to look like they weren’t brimming with excitement.

“Fine; one party. But this is an anomaly, okay? Don’t start expecting me to start dropping my responsibilities to go out and party. This is purely because I feel like my brain is going to burst if I try to write one more word of that paper.”

“Yay!” Alexa squealed, while Madison exclaimed, “Oh, I could just kiss your philosophy professor! We’ll meet you here at eight okay? So I expect you to be ready to go by then.”

“Yes, mom. I’ll make sure to have my teeth brushed and the backs of my ears washed by then.” Veronica teased, rolling her eyes at them as they dashed away.

* * *

Eight o’clock came sooner then later, and it found Veronica standing in front of her mirror, frowning at her reflection.

Veronica knew that there wasn’t anything wrong with her appearance, and yet, it felt strange to be standing there, dressed to the nines in her bright blue dress, with her hair perfectly curled and her glasses nowhere to be seen.

“I look,” she murmured aloud “like high-school Veronica.”

Her fingers fiddled nervously with the hem of her dress, twisting the fabric back and forth. Veronica was used to have something to busy her hands with, in high-school it had been her pearls and now it was her glasses. She wondered if Madison would let her get away with her wearing her glasses.

“Veronica? You ready to go?” a voice called.

“Yep.” Veronica answered, crossing over to the door and pulling it open.

“Augh!” cried Alexa at the sight of her “I swear that you are the most unfair person. No-one should look that good and insist on hiding it away behind big sweaters and chunky glasses.”

Veronica blushed, pulling the door closed as she stepped out into the hallway, “Thanks, I guess. You guys look fantastic too.”

“We’re going to make every single guy there lose his mind. You guys ready to go?” asked Madison.

“I’m ready.”

“Me too.”

“Well then, ladies, the night awaits!”

* * *

Madison and Alexa deserted Veronica exactly fifteen minutes after they got to the party—a party that was only different from the high-school parties she had gone to in the past because of the fact that it was bigger and that she knew less people then she had back at Riverdale.

Someone handed her a cup full of something. She sniffed it—it smelled like a vodka sour—but Veronica wasn’t going to take the chance. Still, it was better to trick people into thinking that she already had a drink then have to ward of offers of tipsy frat boys to go get her one.

She could see Alexa and Madison dancing together, Madison’s beautiful, dark skin tone contrasting against Alexa’s pale one. They were laughing, and when they caught Veronica’s eye they tried to wave her over, but Veronica only smiled at them, motioning to the still full cup in her hand. She glanced around, taking in the different faces, attempting to avoid the flirtatious glances of a particularly golden retriever-ish looking young man. She had gone down that path before with Archie—and wasn’t ever going to again.

Another face stood out from the crowd—a pale face—that turned away as soon as Veronica glanced towards it. It was strange, Veronica could have sworn that she’d seen that face before, but she couldn’t seem to place it.

“Excuse me,” came a voice. Veronica looked towards the speaker and sighed internally—it was the golden retriever, looking down at her with beseeching eyes.

“Excuse me, would you like to dance?”

“Um, actually—I was just going to the bathroom, sorry. Maybe later.” Veronica said, thrusting her cup into the golden retrievers hand and then rushing away to find the bathroom.

She left the main area through the kitchen, then hurried into a dark hallway; opening the first door she could find the handle for. The door opened, and swinging her hand violently up and down against the wall, Veronica managed to find the light switch and turn it on, flooding the room in fluorescent.

The room wasn’t a bathroom, as Veronica immediately figured out, and it wasn’t unoccupied either. A man with dark hair was sitting on the bed with his back to her, looking down at something he held in his hand, probably a phone or a drink, Veronica guessed.

“Oh! I’m so sorry to burst in, I thought this was the bathroom.”

“It’s fine.” the man said, standing “This isn’t my room. Actually, I don’t even live here.”

Veronica froze at his words. That voice—it was impossible—but Veronica knew that voice.

“…Jughead? Jughead _Jones_?!”

“In the flesh.” the man turned to face her, a small grin ghosting over his face “Hi, Veronica.”

“Jughead? Oh my gosh, Jughead!” Veronica exclaimed, running over to him and throwing her arms around his neck.

“Oof—“ Jughead grunted, bringing up his arms to return Veronica hug hesitantly “Yeah, it’s me. It’s good to see you too.”

“I just can’t believe that it’s really you!” Veronica pulled back from him, but kept a grip on Jughead’s forearms, looking up into his face, smiling so wide that her face was beginning to hurt.

“I haven’t seen you seen graduation—what are you doing now—and what are you doing here?”

“Well I’m here ‘cause I got invited by one of the dudes who’s throwing this thing—Josh, nice guy—and I’m here because I go here. NYU, I mean. I’m in on a scholarship.”

“That’s amazing, Jughead! I’m here with—“

“Your two friends. Yeah, I saw you with them earlier.” Jughead admitted.

“What?” Veronica asked, incongruously “You saw me and you didn’t come over to say hi? What were you planning on doing if I hadn’t stumbled on you, just hiding until you thought I’d be gone?”

Jughead shrugged, shaking his arms free from Veronica’s hands.

“I mean, I guess so. I didn’t really think about that much.”

“Why? Did you not want to see me? I know that we weren’t super close in high-school, but we did hang out a lot during senior year—after you and Betty broke up.”

She could hear the hurt seeping into her voice, but she couldn’t help it. Sure, Veronica hadn’t thought all that much about Jughead after she’d left for college, but the sight of his familiar, overly-guarded face had reminded her just how lonely she really was—how desperate for a face from home.

“No, no, it’s not that. I just didn’t want to force myself on you or anything. I know that there are definitely things about high-school, and Riverdale in general that I would rather forget about.”

“Okay, but why would I ever want to forget about you? I mean, hell, half the time the only thing that made the days bearable was our semi-friendly spats.”

Jughead laughed, nodding his head awkwardly, and Veronica punched him lightly in the shoulder.

“What I’m trying to say is, that you don’t need to avoid me. It’s really nice to see you, which I know that I’ve said already, but it’s the truth. So what do you say,” holding out her hand to him with a grin “do you dare to go back out to the party with Veronica Lodge on your arm?”

“Now what do you need my arm for when you have two perfectly good ones of your own?” Jughead scoffed—even while he was reaching over to take her hand.

They walked back out to the main area, Veronica saw the golden retriever from before, who had already found another unattached female to glom on to. The music had gotten louder, and the air had begun to haze over with the scent of second-hand smoke.

“I don’t see your friends!” Jughead shouted.

“Me either, I don’t no where they could have go—“

“O.M.G, Alexa! Veronica found a guy!” Madison squealed, running up behind Veronica and wrapping her arms around her clumsily.

“Veronica, your guy,” Alexa leaned in close to Veronica and spoke in an easily understandable whisper “is a total smoke show. Where did you find him and where can I get one?”

Veronica flushed, embarrassed, and glanced towards Jughead, but he seemed to be taking her friend’s words in stride, and was beaming softly down at her. She returned his grin with a small smile of her own and hurriedly made introductions.

“Alexa and Madison, this is Jughead, who I went to high-school with. Jughead, this is Madison and Alexa, my friends who are normally much more sober and but equally as embarrassing, unfortunately. Guys,” snapping her fingers to get there attention “I’m going to go back to my dorm now, okay? Okay?”

“Yeah, yes, _fine_! Go, have fun—but don’t invite McHottie upstairs. It’s only the first date, you know.”

Cringing, Veronica turned away dragging Jughead with her until they had left the building and were breathing in the sweet cold air.

“So I’m walking you home?”

“Oh, no, that’s okay. I just wanted to say goodbye to you not in there. You don’t have to walk me back if you don’t want to, I just couldn’t stay in there any longer. But you’ve probably got to get back to your friend…Josh, was it?”

Jughead’s smile dimmed, but he nodded yes in response to Veronica’s words.

“Yeah, Josh. You’re right, I should go find him—it would be kinda rude of me to leave without saying anything to him. So I guess that I’ll see you around?”

“I suppose you will.” Veronica agreed, doing her best to ignore the pang of sadness that came with Jughead’s words.

She reached over and gave him another hug—one that was reciprocated much more speedily then it had been previously—holding him tight before letting go and tuning away from to walk away down the sidewalk.

“Veronica, wait!” Jughead called, and when she turned he had almost reached her.

“Yeah?”

“Do you like tv shows?”

“Um…yes?”

“And are you busy tomorrow night?”

“No, why?”

"‘Cause we’re gonna have a tv night. I’ll text you my dorm details tomorrow, okay?”

Veronica nodded, smiling.

“Okay then. I’ll see you tomorrow then."

“Yeah, see you then.”

And with that Veronica turned and continued walking, grinning from ear to ear without really knowing why. But that was all right, because she was going to see Jughead again, tomorrow.


End file.
